Good morning world! It’s a full house today, with all seven of the Dream Team enjoying delicious breakfast and tea from The Rabbit Hole in Redfern. Seriously, that place is design heaven! Not to mention the delicious tea, with mini hourglasses (so Dream & Do) and mugs with bunny tails. Anyway, to the inspo…
INSPO #1 // the crazy ones
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the heart of every great company and what keeps it beating. It is the vision. Not only do the people of the company feel motivated by this, your customers do too. Simon Sinek's TED Talk, Start with Why teaches us this exact point; that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. "Think Different" is a tagline that is attached to the vision of Apple and this commercial doesn't even show a computer, it sells what they stand for and asks if you do too. I will never buy anything other than a mac computer. Steve Jobs, a vision so strong it lives on today.
Watch it here and remember to stay brave and crazy. As Karl Lagerfeld said, "I would rather have a split personality, than no personality at all."
INSPO #2 // Highbrow
Have you ever come across something so amazing and so you, that you wish to all the heavens that it was you who came up with the sick idea? That happened to me a few days ago when I discovered Highbrow. It’s a FREE email subscription service where you can sign up for “courses” to expand your knowledge universe over 10 days, in just 5 minutes per day. I signed up for the ‘Major Schools of Thought in Psychology’ course and received my first email this morning. It took me less than 5 minutes to read on the train and I now know a little bit about structuralism. They have 57 courses to date, in areas like Art, Psychology, Philosophy, Science, etc etc, and you can only sign up for one at a time (so calm down, you over-achievers!). Did I mention it’s FREE?
The nerd in me is absolutely frothing. I LOVE TO LEARN. I WANT TO KNOW ALL OF THE THINGS. Everyone needs to sign up right now so that we can all be a little smarter and have more intelligent conversations and impress Tinder dates with our brains.
Amy, Copywriter
INSPO #3 // Travel Sketchbooks
I love travelling, but unfortunately I'm always there for a short period of time. Someone once said to me I'm like an "amazing race traveller". I like to speed travel and take in as much as I can possibly soak up. I do keep a travel journal but I rarely finish my entries because I put too many details in. So as an illustrator/designer, I decided to draw instead of write and manage to recount all the speedy events that I've experienced overseas. Here are some pages...
Drawing these allows you to appreciate every moment and every detail of your break away from home. Maybe I am an "amazing racer", but I do have moments where I sit down on the lawn or a bench somewhere in front of an amazing structure and sketch the hell out of it. Marvelling and appreciating history through my sketches.
Rachel, Graphic Designer
INSPO #4 // Jeannie Baker, 'Window'
The power or importance of nostalgia. I rediscovered this cherished childhood book recently after completely forgetting about it for the past 12 years or so. It's an ageless book, so if you haven't read it you'll enjoy it just as much as if you were a child. It's wordless, using collage images made from real materials such as vegetation, cloth, branches, etc. It creates a narrative through the changing elements we see through this 'window' on every turn of the page. We follow a young boy growing up in a changing suburb, watching his environment change through his window from a lush green forest abundant with animals to a suburb much like any other we see now. It asks the question as to whether we are realising this change happening and seeing how it, or we, affect our environment. Sydney, particularly, and all surrounding suburbs are currently going through such a massive similar change we observe in the book to accommodate a larger population. My own hometown now looks completely different to how it was and that's both a good and bad thing. Jeannie Baker does write at the end of the book: "Scientists estimate that if we continue to destroy wilderness at this pace, by the year 2020 no wilderness will remain on our planet except for land protected in national parks and reserves."
The author summarises so eloquently: "But by opening a window in our minds, by understanding how change takes place and by changing the way we personally affect the environment, we can make a difference."
Do you take the time to look through your window? Are you noticing these changes?
Renata, Graphic Designer & Photographer
INSPO #5 // Don Miguel Ruiz, 'The Four Commandments'
I’ve had “The Four Commandments” book by Don Miguel Ruiz on my ‘To Read’ list for the past couple of years but, unfortunately, it’s one of the many that have fallen into the 'too many books/not enough hours' category. Over the past week, it's been recommended again by another two friends and yesterday I came across The Four Commandments overview posted on Facebook. So, if that’s not a sign to actually read it, I don’t know what is.
I totally understand why so many people think I’d love it. If we all lived our lives by these agreements, I’m sure the world would be a different place. I personally will hold my hands up and say that I struggle with certain aspects on the list: “When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering” and “Find the courage to ask questions and express what you really want”.
Whether you choose to follow these exact agreements or make up your own, I think its a really important thing to do, to help define the person you intend to be or at least keep you on track. As the Dream Team, we're going to take inspiration from this and collaborate to produce our own list of Dreamer agreements. We know who we are, our passion and our commitment to each other and our clients. But it's always nice to clarify this and have it written on a scrap of paper or even painted all across the office wall... (potentially a job for Rachel, our amazing illustrator!). On a personal level, I’ll be using the four agreements as the background on my phone, saying it as a mantra every day and finally get around to reading the book!
Jo, Creative Coordinator
INSPO #6 // Advanced Style video
Having come across this video on Facebook, watching it and keeping locked away in my brain bank, it seemed perfect to dig it up again for Creative Show & Tell. Delving further into the clip, it's taken from a documentary that recently came out titled ‘Advanced Style’ directed by Lina Plioplyte. The documentary follows seven older women living in New York, embracing their individuality and creativity through how they dress and it's a reminder not to let expectations, or cultural norms, dictate how you want to express yourself. This video really resonated with me as someone who has recently come into their own style. Being at uni surrounded with design types, the pressure to dress like a serious designer in all black really weighed on me and my creativity. I didn’t even know how it was hindering me; not only how I felt but also how I worked. I have embraced my love for colour and pattern in the last year or so and now refuse to buy any new black clothing. I dress for my mood and feel a great deal better.
Tara made a comment: ‘I want to be that cool when I’m old!’. But really, the question is, why can’t we be that cool now? Life doesn’t have to be so monotone and serious … although if that's your thing, then rock the hell out of it. Personal style and expression should be an extension of yourself; do it for yourself and no one else. If people don’t like it, screw them!
For Dream & Do, it's a reminder to always stay original; do things that no one else is doing. If everyone is bandwagon-ing a certain style, do the opposite! But always do it for good reason; always keep the substance. Never half-ass anything, do everything with your whole ass!
Nadia, Creative Intern